India: Uttar Pradesh Police Arrested Over 1,600 People on Anti-Conversion Charges in Last Four Years

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – In the last four years, authorities in northern India’s Uttar Pradesh state arrested 1,682, people under an extreme anti-conversion law designed to suppress non-Hindu religious freedom, the International Christian Concern (ICC) advocacy organization reports.

According to ICC, most of those arrested under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act in recent years have been Christians. Ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party since 2014, India ranks 11 on the Open Doors World Watch List 2024 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.

Charges have been filed in 818 of the 835 cases registered under the anti-conversion law following the initial arrests, ICC reports.

In a statement quoted by the Times of India, Uttar Pradesh’s Director General of Police Prashant Kumar said: “Police officials have been directed to initiate action based on evidence. Those who offer allurement, and inducement, and adopt illegal means for conversion would not be spared and action would be taken against them. We have filed a charge sheet in almost 98% of cases till now, which is about 818 cases, while 17 cases are still under probe.”

Notably, despite the number of arrests and subsequent charges no convictions have thus far been secured, ICC reports. “If there had been even a single conviction under the anti-conversion law, the pro-government mainstream media would have tom-tommed about it all over the national media,” Uttar Pradesh resident Sahu Johar said in a statement to ICC.

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